The Love Story in the Murder Trial
by bingblot
Summary: I was there for the murder trial but what I got, what I saw, was a love story. Short one-shot from 'Verdict in the Story'. Completely BB with an OC narrator.


Disclaimer: All things 'Bones' belong to FOX, Hart Hanson, & Co. and the dialogue from the episode belongs to them too. The narrator (and her husband) are my inventions.

Author's Notes: A short one-shot from 'The Verdict in the Story' just because it was so filled with BB goodness, I had to write something. (And entirely random but can I just say, I completely 3 Angela in this ep.) Enjoy!

**The Love Story in the Murder Trial**

I thought about it as I drove home that day.

I hadn't been thrilled about jury duty in the first place (who would be?) and even less so when I was actually empanelled.

But the case—the trial for the murder of the Deputy Director of the FBI—well, the case was interesting and the people involved were even more interesting.

What can I say, I'm a people person. I like to watch people.

I'm a high school administrator; you might say watching people is part of my job description.

So at the trial, I watched and I listened but what I saw wasn't really the murder trial.

I was there for the murder trial but what I saw, what I got, was a love story.

I knew about Dr. Temperance Brennan before this. I'd read her books and I'd seen an interview of her a couple years back. She was very… unusual, very direct. Off-putting in her directness, even offensive.

She hadn't changed, appearance-wise, when I saw her again at the trial but her expression was different. It looked… a little more open, a little less shuttered.

Call me a romantic but I attributed it to the influence of her partner, Special Agent Seeley Booth. (And can I just add that he was a definite bright spot to the long days of the trial? I'm not saying it was relevant or that it affected my opinion of his testimony but he was… ahem. He is a very good-looking man. I'd defy any woman to not enjoy being able to watch that man for any amount of time, even when he is discussing a murder.)

I'll admit I wondered, idly, when I saw the two of them in person at the trial what their relationship was.

They were partners and certainly friends. I could see that in the way they were constantly whispering, not-so-softly, to each other and then after they were separated, in the glances at each other, as if they always turned to the other first for a reaction.

It was an awkward situation for them, to say the least. Her father on trial and he was the agent who'd arrested him, the first witness for the prosecution. The dictionary definition of awkward.

But, oddly, the awkwardness of the situation didn't seem to really spill over into their relationship. Not with the way they still talked to each other in the courtroom and the way they still looked at each other.

Their relationship was different, went beyond this situation; that was clear.

But it wasn't until the end that I realized what it was that defined their relationship, that I realized what I'd been watching in these days of the trial.

It was a love story.

The defense attorney had just called Special Agent Booth back up to the stand and had confronted him about Dr. Brennan's motive to kill Deputy Director Kirby.

He told the truth that she did have motive but then he volunteered the information that "Bones", as he called Dr. Brennan, had been with him all day.

The memory of that moment played out in my head like a recording.

"Dr. Brennan could have burned the body hours later when you were safe at home."

Special Agent Booth had just _looked_ at Dr. Brennan. He'd been able to see where this was going just as well as we all could; he couldn't hide that and he couldn't hide his reaction to the thought.

He'd looked at her for so long that the judge had instructed him to answer the question but he'd spoken to Dr. Brennan first. "That's a lot of heart, Bones."

I didn't know what he meant but clearly Dr. Brennan did. Her expression—the tears in her eyes—made that clear.

It was what Agent Booth said next that told me what I was watching, what we were all watching, entirely aside from the drama of the murder trial.

"Could Bones have killed Kirby? Temperance Brennan—I've worked with this woman. I've stood over death with her. I've faced down death with her. And Sweets, he's brilliant, he is, but he's wrong. She could not have done this."

He'd been addressing them, the members of the jury, but he'd been looking straight at Dr. Brennan for the most part. He'd been talking about her in the 3rd person but he'd been talking _to_ her, really. Everything he said—he was really saying it to her.

And his words were simple enough but his expression—his eyes—said a lot more. He never said, in words, _I love you, _but that was what he was telling her, what he was telling all of us in that courtroom if we only had the eyes and the brain and the heart to realize it.

And that was when I realized what I was really seeing.

It was a love story.

That was what defined their relationship, at its truest, most basic level. It was a love story.

In that moment, I knew that Special Agent Seeley Booth loved his partner, Dr. Temperance Brennan. He loved her so he would do this for her; he was telling this truth he did not want to say, this fact he did not believe, for her.

He'd wanted to lie—a blind man could have seen that—but he'd told the truth, partly because he was under oath, yes, but his real reason had been in his expression, in his tone. He'd told the truth and made people wonder if she could have killed Kirby—for her. (_Talk about tough love._ Admitting his partner _could_ have committed a murder—not the usual method of declaring love but that was what Agent Booth had done. And he'd done it for her.)

He had lost the case for which he'd been one of the principal witnesses for the prosecution—for her.

I don't know if Max Keenan killed Deputy Director Kirby. Certainly I think he might have; in fact, I think he probably did. But 'probably' is not beyond a reasonable doubt. And because of that chance, that doubt, I had to vote Not Guilty.

But that wasn't what I remembered about the trial of Max Keenan.

I was sitting at home, ostensibly watching television but I couldn't really have told what was on, when my husband came home.

"Hi, sweetie. I saw on the news that the trial ended today. How'd it go? What happened?"

I looked up at him—dear man—and smiled. "I saw a love story today."

He blinked and looked baffled—luckily for him, I think he's adorable when he looks confused. "What? I thought you were at the trial all day today."

"I was. I saw the love story at the trial."

He gave me a look as he sat down beside me. "Now, I know you're just being cryptic to confuse me so have pity and explain."

I laughed, leaning my head on his shoulder, as he put his arm around me. "It's a love story between Dr. Temperance Brennan and Special Agent Seeley Booth." And I explained.

"Hmm. So you think Agent Booth has a thing for Dr. Brennan?"

I elbowed him not-quite-gently. "He loves her; I know it. I was there and I could see it in his expression and what he said about her."

"I believe you! But what about her—does Dr. Brennan love Agent Booth?"

"Of course she does. I've read her books and I saw her face. She has to know."

"Whatever you say, sweetie."

I smiled before I kissed him.

Of course she knew. She had to know—didn't she? The woman was brilliant—how could she not see the love story that was right in front of her face?

I mentally shrugged. She'd figure it out if she hadn't already.

My small part in their lives was over.

I'd gone for the murder trial and seen a love story—and that was my story.

_~The End~_

Author's Notes: Please review and let me know what you think! (You don't want to depress me two days before my last final, do you?) Thanks, as always, for reading.


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